Utility meters having analog dials are still used in many settings to monitor utility usage of a location (e.g. residence, commercial building, etc.) for natural gas, water, and/or electric. An analog dial utility meter will typically include one or more analog dials, each having a respective dial indicator that rotates to point to different numbers on the dial as the associated utility is consumed. Typically, the utility supplier or its agent hires an individual, referred to herein as a meter reader, to travel to the various locations, view the analog dials, and record the meter readings based on the numbers to which the dial indicators point. The meter reader provides that information back to the utility supplier or agent, so that their server can determine utility usage and manage billings, such as billing the customer for the usage.
In smaller and/or less populated areas, the costs involved in having a meter reader travel to the various customer locations to take the meter reading can be prohibitive. Moreover, in some situations, the meter may be located inside of a structure which is not always readily accessible to the meter reader, thus hampering the meter reader and adding delay and further costs. In such situations, the utility supplier often relies on the customer to view the dials and manually self-report the meter reading based on what the customer sees on the dials. While receiving manually, self-reported utility meter readings from customers provides some savings as compared to having a meter reader travel to each location, cost factors and other problems are often encountered with such customer supplied meter readings.
For example, in one conventional method for customers to manually self-report meter readings, utility meter reading cards are periodically mailed to the customer. The customer is to view the dials and mark in the positions of the respective dial indicators on the card. The completed card is then to be mailed back to the utility supplier or its agent, who must then enter the markings into the computer server to determine utility usage and manage billings. Not only is there the cost of postage, both for mailing the utility meter reading card to the customer and for mailing of the completed card back to the utility supplier, other problems are often encountered. For example, cards can be lost or delayed, customers may make incorrect readings or markings, and in some cases, customers might not complete the card. Another method of manual self-reporting involves the customer calling into an automated system to recite the utility meter reading as discerned from the customer's view of the meter dials. While that serves to eliminate some cost, other difficulties may arise, such as failure of the customer to call in the meter reading or inaccuracies by the customer and/or in the speech recognition process.